NEW ZEALAND — While the axiom “you are what you eat” may be true on a health level, a group of vegans — people who eschew animal products from their diets — are taking that message to a sexual extreme.The co-director of the New Zealand Center for Human and Animal Studies at Canterbury University, Annie Potts, coined the term “vegansexual” after doing research on the lives of “cruelty-free consumers.”

In a study that asked vegans about their “cruelty-free” consumption habits and their sexual habits, many female respondents to the survey said while they might be attracted to meat eaters, they might not follow through on those urges because their objects of desire had happily consumed dead animals or the produce of live animals, such as butter, cheese, eggs, or honey.

“I would not want to be intimate with someone whose body is literally made up from the bodies of others who have died for their sustenance,” one Christchurch vegan said when asked about how she felt about boning a burger-eater.

Stateside, PETA (People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals) strongly disagrees with this stance, with vegan spokesman Dan Shannon saying, “Sex is a very important part of outreach and activism.”